what is poetry

i was going through my backpack and all its contents after returning to public school (i work in the school but am neither a student nor employee of the school system) and came across some notes and goodies i had written last year. most of which are the product of boredom and mixed interest in what the english teacher was teaching. good times!!!

What is poetry?
Words conjoined to convey meaning deep and frivolous, unrestrained by convention motivated by intuition. Suggested by two of the students in the class: 1) An expression of words overt in emotion 2) Pointless jumble of words that don't make no sense.

Comments about coffee:
warm, hot, brimming, steaming and mean
caramel coated, swirling milky way, the galaxy of latté
con leche y surgar
1st held like a chalice, an offering to the morning Gods
tickling columbian hairs wafting upwards
percolating permeation
A ceremony.
I used to hate coffee. It's bitter arced taste; it's poop staining quality.
The fact that the coffee mug, no matter what, always leaves a ring of condensed water even in the most dry of conditions.

After the student i was with heard a poem that the teacher read aloud, he was asked to write a poem considering the following questions: 1) What does it do to me? 2) What do I think of it? Well the kid didn't write anything, so I decided to write something that he might write given his behaviors. Here it is.

Thinking little, not thinking
Bored of words not enjoyed well or
poorly, misshapingly
spoken aloud

My thoughts disappeared, Wait, I have
no thoughts only bowed faced down feeling
bogged down weighty
ness

Imprints of flatness and a developing
Mayan forehead. The Poem does little
But the desk keeps
me afloat.

this one i wrote for a kid who seemingly couldn't think due to prescribed stupefaction. good kid but highly medicated.

Sitting here
Dazed and confused

Left with no doubt
Feeling utterly used

Hatred, self-doubt
It’s who I am

Can’t concentrate
Never to grow up
Becoming a man

This one I wrote beginning with the 1st word that came to mind (I wanted a beer).

My fish
Owned by my daughter
Loved by the whole family
Sits in the kitchen
On the countertop
Never to leave the bowl

lastly, i will present a quote that i presented to the class on the virtues of NOT USING THE PHONE

"What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call." ---Liz Carpenter---

Buying a Dog

So you think that you want to buy a dog? You have heard about the positive health benefits of having a canine by your side and want to live healthfully. Maybe the stress of it all is just too much and having a playful barker by your side will lower your blood pressure. Perhaps you're a bird hunter and an extra "four hands" might help in retrieving that shot down Ring Necked pheasant. It could just be that you're tired of that arrogantly pompous feline strutting around your home thinking she's Gods gift to humanity and doesn't care whether or not you have to replace one more couch due to the needless starching. Whatever the reasons, there are a few facts that that you should consider and probably will not find on sites such as PetSmart or AKC.

Size, yes size needs to be a consideration. Not the size of the dog although responsible ownership will consider the size of the dog in conjunction with the size of their living quarters. A Boarder Collie will not be happy cramped up in some New York apartment. What matters is the size of the PILE in direct relation to the size of the dog and the type of food given to given to the animal. Of course a toy dog with leave bite size tootsie rolls around for you to pick up. Will you ever be able to eat the candy again is a real consideration. And a Saint Bernard, Scottish Deerhound, or Great Dane will leave mounds steaming for days on end. Can you use a Backhoe in your clean up? Depending on the type of food you give your friend will determine if your picking up after him once a day or several times a day. A good lively feed will be made out of 70 to 90% lamp or beef and will offer your dog a regular once a day bowl movement as if they were on a steady diet of fiber just like the doctor told you you needed. But a generic brand of feed will be more bits and pieces mixed together with horse parts than McDonald's used to put into their McNugguts. Plus you'll be going through pooper scoopers like no tomorrow.

How much embarrassment you can stomach also needs to be considered because your dog will embarrass you. If your sitting on the couch curled up to your loved one watching The Notebook hoping to score a little nookie, nothing gets you quit in the mood more than your dogs most basic instinct. Perhaps it too senses the air of attraction and just as you move your leg to stretch out, the canine pounces and starts to hump away. Yes, HUMP. Your dog, be it female or male, will someday act in a manner befitting the highest paid prono stars. It will rhythmically attack not only you leg, but a thrown down pillow, another attractive pouch while walking in the park, or even a nephew or nice coming to visit for the first time in ages. Can you stomach it? Now if that’s the thing you do to entertain guests by all means let the dog have its fun. It’s nothing but the dog in it!!!

Last but not least is the type of dog you will want to think about. They can be classified into many different groups, such as working, sporting, or herding, to name a few, but really there are but two types of dogs that must be considered. This may very well be the determining factor when you go to purchase that devoted and loyal animal friend. I suggest that all dogs can be SEEN as “asshole, slight asshole, or nonasshole”. What can you stand to see when your energetic pet takes you for a walk? Do you want the whole kit and caboodle to be staring you down like some dirty pink and brown eye? Some yogis talk about man’s third eye. Well there is no questioning the existence of some dog’s third eye because the cute little pucker will be eyeing you like an incontinent lactose intolerant 6 month old baby. It’ll be like a car reek. You will not be able to keep your eye off of it. This is the full-on asshole dog like the Akita, Samoyed, or Pomeranian. Can you stand the sight? Some dogs like the Spaniels and Labradors will show off their assholes when excited while wagging their tales. These are the slight assholes. Good when you can live with the less than full look of the rear. Than there are the dogs that through evolutionary bum consideration have covered up their anus’ either with a long coat of hair or a fully hanging tail designed to hide the intestines exit. Belgian Malinoiss, Setters, and Komondors are great dogs for the camouflaging their hineys.

Just remember when considering what dog is right for you, think about the poop-scoop size factor, the canine’s need to spread its seed, and the asshole factor. Taken together and weighed with much deliberation you should be able to find the perfect animal companion.

A NEW group of primates?

The distinction between man and other sentient beings has been argued over for more than 2500 years. Genetics suggest that there’s a mere 2% difference between man and chimp and embryologists point out the similarities between the early gestation of a chicken and a developing human fetus. Than, attempting to define man seems next to impossible. It must than be very hard for the various disciplines dedicated to the pursuit of discovering man’s essence to compare him to other animals (even in using “animal”, I’m sure that a few evangelical purists shudder to liken man to the many beasts of burden). Indeed, even within the many varied Christian faiths, man’s core is hotly debated. Is he the height of [God’s] creation or nothing capable of virtue but inclined to act basely. Throw in a few biologists, mathematicians, and philosophers and the whole argument becomes a knock down dragged out brawl more about being heard than actually coming to a general and well understood categorization.

This understanding of man is of interest to all of us. Commoners alike throughout history have wondered in astonishment at their very nature and purpose. A simple reflection in the local watering hole must have provided countless opportunities to stare into the unknown while offering a glimpse into the abyss. Along come the sophisticates and Know-it-alls with pedantic degrees after their names muddling it all with ideas about the organic to concepts about the ethereal. Theses so called thinkers and purveyors of humanity mean to educate everyone else in the realms of origin and design, the alpha and omega as it were; a sinew of underlying achievement. Wait! That may imply a watchmaker. Nevertheless, when I heard that the London Zoo had put on display a new group of primates I was intrigued.

A NEW group of primates? Did Richard Kipling come back to life and gone exploring without any of us lay people knowing it? Had the ghost of Linnaeus comeback to haunt his age old classification system? Was the missing link discovered at last? No, no, no! The esteemed London Zoo finished exhibiting its latest “animals” today. I heard about it on the radio with the man’s distinction being heralded as “just another primate”. Just another primate? Even though there is little agreement among the different academic disciplines as to what constitutes man’s essence, I daresay that many men and woman would place themselves into the simple primate characterization.

The website does shed a little bit more light onto the meaning behind the exhibition. But really, are we humbled by the site of a few exhibitionists strutting about in Adam and Eve’s finest summer fashions? Do we learn more about the habits of man and his behaviors by seeing a few graduate students on special assignment? Or is it a stunt to market the environmentally friendly facilities within one of the world’s nicer prisons for animals? Whatever the reason, I heartily disagree with the idea behind the Human Zoo. Maybe if it were a performance art piece, but serious scientific intent? Please. At least the show denigrated the ideas about understanding the behaviors of man and animal. At most it threw man’s pursuit of understanding himself back to the trial of John Scopes and towards “…a conflict of social and intellectual values”.

a few questions and suggestions

Which actor is better?

Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan
Jean Claude van Damme or Steven Segal
Mel Brooks or Leslie Nielsen
Ray Remano or Jerry Seinfeld
Al Pacino or Robert de Niro
Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp
Jackie Gleason or Carrol O’Connor
Bill Cosby or Alan Alda
George Clonney or Jimmy Smits
Micheal Keton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, or Christian Bale

Movies to check out from yesterday

The sting a duo classic
Blazing Saddles blazed through segregation
Fletch Lives successful post SNL comedy
Heavey Metal before there was Pixar.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is not some DSM classification
Desperately Seeking Susan sought good acting
Fries Green Tomatoes cooked more than barbecue
Colors Ice T rules!!!
Grand bleu, Le (the big blue) do I have a thing for Rosanna Arquette
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure Most excellent!!!

VOTE FOR BIG DADDY BUTT HEAD

Mo better questions

Bevis & Butthead or Southpark
Vanilla or Chocolate
Survivor or Big Brother
Batman or Superman
Addams family or Munsters
MTV or VH1
Tupac or Biggie
Harry Potter or Lord or the Rings
Coke or Pepsi
McDonalds or Burger King
Wal-Mart or Big K

Apple or IBM
Playstation or Xbox
Draft or Bottle

Question: Describe how the VMAs continue to suck as the years progress. Support your answer with examples such as P Diddys lame attempts at humor regarding his name.

and a little quote to spice up the blog: Learn the principle, abide by the principle, and dissolve the principle. In short, enter a mold without being caged in it. Obey the principle without being bound by it. LEARN, MASTER AND ACHIEVE!!! ---bruce lee---

food for thought

"okay-okay-okay", drive through food for thought:

• if you have a 1 in a million chance of meeting your soul-mate, doesn't that mean that there are 297 (give or take a few) perfect soul-mates for you within the united states?
• what the hell is transpecies? humanimals! "give me a break" says john Stossel
• if Aron Ralston gets his other arm stuck between a rock and a hard place, will he cut it off?
• The Wendigo could quite possibly be the worst movie ever made!!!
• why isn't there a german soccer team called the schweinhunde? hehe loved the gatorade print ads
• at a recent toby kieth concert, dear mr. america himself sought to add troops to his "red-neck" regiment. his only 3 requirements were 1) you drink 2) you drink this weekend 3) you sound off like you got a pair. god bless america!!! well, i may not drink (right now), but i may have to move to canada and join the dixie chick's draft.
• Restless Legs Syndrome WHAT THE F!!!
• What's a man's definition of a romantic evening? Sex
• which would the the schizophrenic more likely report as happening more often? fornication or formication?
• "Not all who wonder are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkein
• if you are such a devoted fan, how come you didn't start a website at the age of 12?
• Theodore John Kaczynski might have liked technology?! Naah
• Prokaryotic/Eukaryotic, what's the big difference anyway?
• "...the art and technical aspects of body suspension", now put that into a job interview.

All Praise and Glory to the Human Spirit

Seriously, this is really inspirational!!!! Team Hoyt

Thanks "REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL" for the information.

In other news, the Steelers (2-1) lost their 3rd preseason game 10 to 17 against the Redskins (1-2). Too bad yet the real test begins Sunday, September 11th @ 1PM where they will face the Titians; however, the coolest part of the game came late in the 4th quarter with the Steelers making their finial run for the goal line. It wasn't some spectacular run by The BUS nor a game tying hail mary by Tommy (I'm know you'll contribute MUCH to the team) Maddox. No, it was the Yellow capped Steeler fan sporting a perch to some northwestern praying mantis. Yes that's right a praying mantis. What a great shoot!!! Praise goes out to the director for allowing this on the air with much credit going to the cameraman for spotting such an incredible insectoid balancing act. Now let's hope that the little bugger didn't get booted out for not paying the full price of admission. We sure got our moneys worth.

Questioned pain seeking celebrated dullness

something related to a time in the hospital this last spring. crazy how things started but thankfully i received the necessary treatment.

one statement from someone close to me was that she wasn't sure she liked the flow. this is an important consideration and interestingly was thought about in development. funny that! but good feedback and a worthy criticism.

see what ya think...

Questioned pain seeking celebrated dullness

Emergency nurse asks uninterestingly, “constant or intermittent?”
I’m not here for what she asks but reply, “chronic and acute.”
She repeats annoyed with less interest, “constant or intermittent?”
I GASP, “constant and intermittent!” How you like that one!? With breathless indignation.
Follow me she instructs after a few minutes of frantic scribbling.

This is how it is even in the most extreme of circumstances. Having presented to the hospital with a type 2 emergency and learning about the narcotic pain regiment for something unrelated, a barrage of less curious supposedly caring questions usher forth with the intent of lick-ert(ing) my unseen inner turmoil.
1) Strongly disagree
2) Disagree
3) Never agree nor disagree
4) Agree
5) Strongly Agree
What BETTER way to discribe the streched thin, ever dulling, stabing sensations that play their part both “constant and intermittent”.
Constant? O’, I strongly disagree madam paid too little nusre who only has to jout down the right response. Chronic feels more true, empowered with the feeling of omnipresence.
Intermittent? Again, o’ wise sage checking off the time clock by your station. If it were an analoug clock it would pierce the seconds with the same knife-like quality that shoots through me every other intstance very a cutely .

At least in respitory distrass, the enemy can be seen and confronted.
STAT! Get this! HERE! ALLLLLLLLLLLLL BETER ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
Well I strongly disagree. Surely the presenting problem is “fixed” (until the next intermittent instance) but what of the other? The…
The pain, the pain, the pain, is constantly questioned.
How is it? What is it? Where is it? Why is it? IS IT?
Is it? All the time in celebrated wonderment do they wonder whether what I describe is, is, is what? Help me Rensis. Help me!
“On a scale of one to ten with one being no pain what so ever and ten being the worst pain you have ever felt”
This is just it isn’ it? This is where the problem lyes. To quantify a personal qaulity that regularly changes yet to be understood by the self and by others. WOW! A meeting of the minds felt bodily. No wonder so many people choose to simply answer after anwsering so often the rightly juxtaposed inaccurately but percisely poised, “constant or intermittent?”
Dull as it may seem it’s the dullness that is achieved.
The qustioner becomes dulled by the every daunting, “The Pain, The Pain, The Pain” celebrated beside a number.
The answerer seeks dullness to the ever chronic and acute, “The Pain, The Pain, The Pain” never honoring the answer.

yes, flow is important. Ebb and Flow, The Motion of the Ocean. very important!!! perhaps i will continue to look into this and revise my prose.

on a different note, i watched an old movie today. one that i liked and think others should look into.

Desperate Measures

it will never be a cult classic. it certainly wasn't a box office sensation. the story? cliché. the dialogue? trite and arnold-wannabe. "If I can't eat it, drink it, fuck it or fire it, I don't want it." perhaps the four new food groups. but the best was an exchange between peter mcCabe and frank conner. The shortened version is, "do you really want to test my resolve? to see where you end and i begin?" This was superb!!! and really captured what i believe to be not just the essence of the flick but the secret of life. going after what is necessary and desired with not the typical 110% muscle clad workout but with deeply felt conviction and determination. even in the end when frank is confronting peter on the bridge, peter is impressed with the resolve put into his pursuit. the response, "i'm motivated" should be put into all of our earthly endeavors.

am i motivated? are you? where do others end and i begin. maybe an answer can be seen in the accomplishments of lance armstrong maybe it can be achieved in all of us!!! let's work beyond 110% and truly succeed. well you decide for yourself, and i'll look into getting my four new food groups!!!

Audience is the Real Rock STAR

OKAY, OKAY, I admit it. I watch a lot of reality T.V. Hell I watch a lot of T.V. but am taken with the craze of reality programming. Better than participating in my own life right? :-))) The latest craze, that’s just it isn’t it, CRAZE, revolves around one of my late teen favorites turning into one of my adult favorite shows. That's right! INXS has become a new T.V. Rock Star. WHAT?!? Not because it’s great. NO! NO! NO! But that it’s a way of reviving Richard Hatch’s nakedness while listening to big hair stadium styled poisoned “I really want to be in your band like no other”. It’s so bad that it makes me laugh. WHY?

• It’s not that Brooke Burke sounds flat in a high-pitched monotone and that her hair was borrowed from Jaclyn Smith (see Charlies angles)
• It’s not that Dave Navarro would sleep with all of the performers except JD (but wait! Wasn’t he married on some other reality show?)
• It’s not that I want to color in the mustache and beard of Kirk Pengilly
• It’s not that the bearded member talks about how he Personally Knows this and that band allllll the fricking time

NO! NO! NO! What makes me laugh so hard, like seeing Richard Hatch’s naked ass as his stranded shipmates gawk at him, is the way that the audience is soooooo into the music. Is this real? Or is there some hidden L-dopa magic pumped into the air throughout the show? Just what are the subliminal messages saying? Clap! Go Bonkers! Raise the Roof! The audience is nutters!!!! Plain and simple, they go sooooo absurdly wild listening to the different contestants that their reactions have to be artificially enhanced.

Most of the compositions are classics and span different musical tastes. This works and cannot be the reason why the audience enjoys the show so much. Hell I doubt any of them really know who the Rolling Stones or REM are. What doesn’t work are the fabulously crapy renditions by the likes of Ty (what the Opera), Heather (can I get another butterfly plz), and whomever else sucks the big microphone of sadness. Maybe when Mig shows off his abs for all the honeys and Dave. The audience laps it up and the panties go a flying. Maybe as JD stabs the air once again they feel as if they too can touch the hand of God. Maybe they are paid to watch a sign above the stage that blinks on periodically like some 50’s live show demanding, “Applause”. Maybe they’re all bums paid to look enthused. Shoot! Pay me 5 bucks a day and I’ll yell and scream for any ol’ new INXS wannabe. Whatever the reason, the audience makes the show well worth it and I will continue to support it so long as it doesn’t interfere with the new season of Survivor.

Down

things of late have made me feel down. so to turn myself around, i decided to look into my feelings of yesterday. what better way to do this than to reread some poems i wrote many moons ago. i am note sure that they helped yet spread some light on my every lingering dysthymia (here i must say that i have never been diagnosed with the condition or that i am NOT making light of it. important as it is to use flowery and descriptive words, it should never be at the expense the people who suffer form certain diseases).

poems are great!!! many subtle nuances of the human psyche can be expressed with great efficiency through expressive poetry. indeed, one may not know it but a catharsis can be achieved through the process writing poetry. this is my aim, at least, an endeavor towards the purest expression of inner feelings and thoughts culminating in a moment of the greatest understanding. rather lofty no????

anyways, here is a poem that i wrote back in 1991. it shows something of the moment in saddened terms.

I know not what I do
For I am an unenthusiastic soul
Reaching for the sun
Blind to its overpowering presence
And unyielding strength

Fantasies swell inside me
Giving me purpose and pleasure
Allowing me to escape
The everyday pains of reality
And its unearthly realism

Emotions run amok sensing release
From that which is caged and bottled up
Knowing that only short lived
All must be experienced and life
Must take root

Mirrored by an unforgiving reflection
The past lashes out
And allows pity and self-dought
To overwhelm my hopes shattered
My dreams torn apart I look to the future
With tear swollen eyes

old vs. new

The other day at dinner I mentioned that the Mt. Olive pickles stationed at the table must be old pickles. "What are those," and "how do you know", were the obvious questions. Honestly, I had to think about it because experience simply wasn’t good enough (my experience not satisfying the experience hungry at the table).

There are many different types of pickles, dilled, sweet, and bread and butter, fruits even, relish not to be forgotten, and some of the trendier and modern incantations incorporate zippy spicing, but a few essential factors must be highlighted.

1. Lactobaccili a bacterium must be allowed to fester = fermentation
2. Salt. Not just any salt. Non-iodized salt. Why? The above bacterium may die off. Salt also helps in the preventing non-helpful microbes forming
3. Cooked vs. fermented cooked are really cooked in a warm, hot even prefab viniger solution. Fermented are dosed in a nice brine upwards of 2 months depending on the maker.

Of course, if your from NYC you must specify sour or half sour, but I digress. Any reputable delicatessen with ask you if you want an old or new pickle. It is from my many sandwich excursions at a vast number of delis that I draw experience and was thus able to answer the questions. The above science didn't seem to impress anyone. OLD pickles are limper, less crunchy. They have a deeper translucence about their coloration making the green dull and muddied and the yellow appear to be part of some middle Michigan bog. New Dills take on a trophy like apperance in holding onto the perfect prepickled facade. Cucumbers must meet strict guidelines before being selected to participate in the divine process of pickling.

Pickle Divinity

• 1st rule of thumb relates to size. Yes size makes a difference. The cucumber should be no longer than your hand is wide. As I have artsy hands and there are vast differences in hand girth, consider the average stout, pudgy thick membered male hand. Ever see the movie Vision Quest? As Carla and Louden head up to Louden’s Grandfather’s, Carla comments on Louden’s man-sized hands or something of the sort. This is the perfect visual in picking the perfectly sized cucumber (and many other things I’m sure).
• 2nd Look at the color of the vegetable. NO yellow fading is wanted. Emerald green sounds good but not just general color of an emerald. Look to the transcendental edges of the stone for a deep forest blush and you will have what might be the desired shade. I read on the internet that "nothing greens greener than emeralds" attributed to Pliny the Elder. This may be true in gemology but not in the garden of pickled perfection.
• 3rd is the distasteful mentioning of Warts. I am not referring to what the AAD defines. I point to the protuberances acknowledged imperfections elsewhere yet are the individual markings of Cucumis sativus' fruit. I have always thought this is a likening to DNA combinations. Wouldn't it be fun to statistically calculate the myriad possibilities related to how many warts a cuc. can have and where they are placed? Maybe not, but the point is that a right proper cucumber must have a far number of warts that add to the tactile expression of a future pickle.

All Praise and Glory to the originators of the PICKLE!!! Continued honor to the all garlic laden, plastic barreled chefs delighting the pickled fancies of our palate. My every grateful stomach bows to the orators of “Old or New” pickle pushers behind the counter of the best deli in the northern hemisphere.

I am no expert, so I implore all interested parties to survey the land of Pickledom. Frolic freely through the fields of hugely different makes and models offered at your local grocery mart and choose one or all as your favorite.

CHEERS!!!

Nature, Others, and Self

Okay, so I can’t sleep; the pressures of life, the difficulties of making it through the daily grind, the tensions felt by nature, others, and self. It’s this last set that must be looked at seriously.

NATURE --- Something completely out of our control. Obvious surely but something we all grapple with. Health and the corruption of all finite matter, the weather and her torrential unforgiving tirades, an animal’s perfectly instinctual purpose guiding towards self-preservation budding heads with “man’s” insatiable manifest consumption, and a self-stabilizing movement towards homogenous coexistence among the 5 kingdoms. Again, completely out of our control.
OTHERS --- The wow wanting Einsteinean relationship of love, friendship, bar-like buying a few drinks reciprocity, sports team commonalities, coworker have to be nice bureaucracy, never really knowing what’s the deal how do you like me now ever fashionable equation of getting along with too many unknown variables and hidden agendas. A minimal amount of control based on others controlling themselves for fear of rejection.
SELF --- The great unknown. A mirror is most likely our closest approximation to an underlying truth. The reflection is backwards yet familiar, comforting at times while infuriating in others. Controlled by the mire flexing of muscle, neurotransmissions along the perceptions of an outside likeness, and moved by…a prime mover?! Karma?! Evolutionary monkey speak?! All controlled in the moment of now.

Why look at the above? Perhaps to simply get some rest. This would be much appreciated right about now. But just putting it out there in recognition of all our pressures, difficulties, and tensions (how can I get relief) may ease the inner eye’s reddening.

--- Live your own life, for you will die your own death ---

another poem for your consumption written on 7/11/2005

Offered in abandonment
A treat consumed,
Sweet,
so sweet,
then thrown away.
What is this?
On the side, in the middle,
off the railroad tracks
blocking the way? No explanation.
Here! Take it.
If wanted, than given;
never knowing the consequences.
DAMN IT!!! Have you no common sense?
Only the inner safety of lecture,
wanton realities
Littering the roads of possible futures.
Snuffed out like the dwindling ambers of cigarette cherries
tossed out the window of ma & pa’s
beat up old station wagon.
Want it? Want that?
That peach pit stripped of all its life!
N-e-v-e-r-t-o-b-e-l-i-e-v-e-a-g-a-i-n.

a beginning

to begin, i simply wanted to write and this seemed the logical, easily "published", noncommercialized -hehe- alternative. everyone's doing it!!! people follow the likes of 12 year old kids touting information about sports figures and game trends (what the?); CNN has/had a show highlighting some of the more influential bloggers (the new newsies of the information age); and google bought the idea for a googol of money. so why not?

why not? what a question.

1. who is to say that what i have to say is worthwhile?
2. one man's spittle is still just spittle
3. i have stuff to do within the "real" world
4. it takes me toooooooo long to type/write/formulate composite, coherent, coalesced and easily digested word equations totaling the faintest of hypothetical episodic narrations (consider jack handey's deep thoughts of snl fame which are much more easily understood)
5. sooooo much stuff cataloged within the digital dimension. SERVERS BEWARE!!! and most of it is not peer reviewed
6. sooooo many self-indulgent, Oprahean/Shakespearean Soliloguies bordering on the next dr. phil's adlerian self-help entitled how to win and influence my own inner latent lost feral self
7. really, a desire to contribute to the greater good of mankind whatever that may be
8. production [man's true defining motive (more to come later)]
9. to be more spiritual. the ever unfolding of my consciousness
10. and to just do - "do or not do. there is no try" yoda i'm told - i think often of the book BIRD BY BIRD of which i do not take to heart but really, really want to

ten good mullings to mull over for both me and you. a less than humble beginning, but a beginning nonetheless. a journey of a thousand miles, yadda yadda; blah, blah. i need to self-medicate now.

but to live up to the discription of this page, here is a poem for our entertainment. i certainly liked writing it on 8/17/2005

This is…insert name here __________

I am a writer, singer, you name it, I am it.
I just haven’t been published and you’ve only heard me in the shower.
I’m just like you. I want to be heard. I must be heard. I can be heard
Or can I?
Thousands of authors and composers, award winners the like.
The Pulitzer, a Platinum record, all high accolades for sure.
You read the reviews; Insert name scored high on the New York Times best sellers.
You even stood in line, waited for hours, just for a nose bleed.
There are even classes, courses, curriculums, dedicated to the “classics”.
There are centuries, turned round, given names like romanticism, baroque
all in the name of what insert name has accomplished. What has been written; song.
But, what was the name of that guy who wrote that book about that time?
But, is the allegro too fast for the changing tastes of today’s discerning ear?
Do you really remember who wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guild to the Universe?
Or has it become a POPULAR movie of the week?
Do you really remember the group you waited hours for to buy their new album?*
Was it worth it?
I am a writer, singer, of my story and song of life.
I want to be of interest, listened to.
But will I be remembered?

*For me, it was Zooropa :-)